Rusty Air in Carolina

The memories are still vivid from a long-past summer in Brevard, North Carolina — where I spent several months at the music festival there as a teenager. Not only did the thick buzzing of cicadas and katydids always accompany the concerts there, but sometimes it was the music itself: on more than one occasion, I remember sitting on the porch of 100-year old Nan Burt and listening to the sounds of summer while she told stories from her long life. This venerable lady was introduced to me by the assistant conductor at the festival, Robert Moody, who would commission my first orchestral work.

The work uses electronics to bring the white noise of the Southern summer into the concert hall, pairing these sounds with fluorescent orchestra textures that float gently by. “Nan’s Porch” begins at dusk, while the katydids make their chatter. Three orchestral clouds — each inhabiting a different harmony, register, and orchestration — hover in the heavy air, and they ultimately begin to meld together when the cicadas start their singing.

The climax of this movement sends us into “Katydid Country,” when the ambience of the first movement evolves into a bluesy, rhythmic tune. The clicks of the katydids become a beat track over which the band, in a smaller, more chamber setting, riffs on a simple tune inspired by old-time blues. Soaring over the last breaths of the blues tune, this long-lined melody moves us into “Southern Midnight.” The three distinct textures from the opening return, but now each is brought to life by a phrase of the melody. At the close of this lyrical section, we hover in that strange space between night and day, when only the singing of the first bird alerts us to the approaching dawn. The bluesy tune begins to creep back into the middle register, while above and below figuration buzzes about in different tonalities.

PERFORMANCE NOTES 

With the exciting element of electronics in this work come no special equipment requirements: simply two stereo speakers, placed on the left and right sides of the stage, a few onstage monitors, and a laptop.

A percussionist (or assistant conductor in the perc section, etc) triggers the sounds on the laptop, using software provided with the rental of the materials. The player simply follows the instructions in the electronic part in the score.

No computer expertise is required from the ‘electronic performer,’ since the part only involves hitting keys on the computer keyboard corresponding to rehearsal numbers in the score. (Some percussionists might prefer an electronic drumpad, also available with the rental materials, because of the larger pads that resemble a percussion instrument.)

CONDUCTOR: Because the electronic part is primarily ambient — and because the score is carefully cued when the electronics become more beat-oriented — a click track is not needed. In ambient passages, the conductor is free; when beats are present, the conductor locks to the beat (“LOCK TO BEAT” is notated in the ‘electronic’ system for clarity).

A live, more performative version of the electronic part can be realized when the composer is present.